Difference between revisions of "Ava"

<p> Place subject to [[Assyria]] from which colonists were sent to Samaria: possibly the same as AHAVAand IVAH. 2Kings 17:24. </p>

<p> '''''ā´va''''' . See [[Avva]] . </p>

<p> [[Ava]] (2 Kings 17:24), also [[Ivah]] (2 Kings 18:34; 2 Kings 19:13; Isaiah 37:13), the capital of a small monarchical state conquered by the Assyrians, and from which king [[Shalmaneser]] sent colonies into Samaria. It is most probable that Ava was a [[Syrian]] or Mesopotamian town, of which no trace can now be found either in ancient writers or in the [[Oriental]] topographers. </p>

<p> (Hebrews Avva', עִוָּא, ruin; Sept. Αουά, 2 Kings 17:24), also IVAH (Hebrews Ivvah', עִוָּה, same signif.; Sept. Ἀουά, 2 Kings 18:34; 2 Kings 19:13; but in Isaiah 37:13, unites with the preceding word, Ἀναεγγουγαυά v. r. Ἀναγουγάυα ), the capital of a small monarchical state conquered by the Assyrians, and from which King [[Shalmaneser]] sent colonies into Samaria. The early [[Jewish]] translators (Symmachus and the Targums) understand it as a mere appellative; but it is associated with other proper names as a city. Some take it for the river, or rather the town which gave name to the river [[Ahava]] of Ezra 8:21 (Bellermann, Handbuch, 3, 374); but this name is quite different in the Hebrews (אְהִוָא ). Iken (Dissertt. Philol. Theolog. p. 152) would identify it with the [[Phoenician]] town Avatha, mentioned in the [[Notitia]] Vet. Dignitatum Imper. Romans (but the reading here is rather doubtful, see Reland, Palaest. p. 232 sq.); or with the town of Abeje, between [[Beirut]] and Sidon, which [[Paul]] [[Lucas]] mentions as the seat of a [[Druse]] prince. Michaelis supposes it to be the land of the [[Avites]] between [[Tripoli]] and Beirut, because they are described as worshippers of [[Nibhaz]] (2 Kings 17:31), an idol which he compares with the great stone dog that formerly stood in that quarter, on which account the [[Lycus]] obtained its name of Nahr el-Kelb, [[Dog]] [[River]] (comp. Mannert, VI, 1:380). This, however, rests upon a confusion of the [[Avim]] of 2 Kings 17:31, with those of Deuteronomy 2:23; Joshua 13:3. (See [[Avite]]). [[Avva]] or [[Ivvah]] was doubtless a city of Mesopotamia, in the region indicated by the associated names (Babylon, Cuth, Hamath, Sepharvaim), perhaps somewhere farther east, in the direction of the classical Aria. </p>